The following is a guest post from Randy Elrod. Randy hosts a gathering for creatives called re:create – which my worship pastor friends tell me is their favorite conference/event of their year. Check it and him out! Here’s what Randy wrote about leadership this week on his blog:

Three professors in Harvard Business School’s Entrepreneurial Management unit who focus on the study of creativity—recognize the romantic allure of believing it’s a rare quality bestowed on a chosen few, but all agree that notion has been debunked long ago, and rightfully so.

“Creativity does have a reputation for being magical,” says Harvard professor Teresa Amabile.

“One myth is that it’s associated with the particular personality or genius of a person—and in fact, creativity does depend to some extent on the intelligence, expertise, talent, and experience of an individual. Of course it does.

But it also depends on creative thinking as a skill.

“The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it’s in the arts, sciences, or business,” she says.

So what can leaders, managers and entrepreneurs do to promote a healthy, positive inner work life among employees?

Sure, a pat on the back or a company Ping-Pong table is always welcome, but what these Harvard Business School professors discovered was much simpler:

People have their best days and do their best work when they are allowed to make progress.

So…

1.) If you are leading, give your team room to make progress.

2.) If you are in a situation where your progress, your creativity is stifled, don’t hang on just for the paycheck.

Instead, look for the place where your passion intersects a need, and there you will find opportunity—that job, that calling—that will give you deep satisfaction while being personally challenging which results in the highest creativity.

Leaders that recognize this simple fact almost always have extraordinary teams!

Thoughts? Takeaway?

*** This is Greg and this blog post from Randy plays well into what I was trying to get across in my recent blog post about StrengthsFinder2.0. If you haven’t read that post, read it HERE. When you know your strengths, talents and how God has created and wired you, you can find a job that suits who you are and let your employer know how to best manage you.